‘Think we are the best’: Pundit suggests Salah’s contract is bothering Liverpool player

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Dean Ashton has suggested that Virgil van Dijk could be ‘bothered’ by Mo Salah’s new big-money contract at Liverpool, as he told talkSPORT.

The former Premier League striker shared how footballers are ‘absolute ego-maniacs’ and they are individuals who ‘completely rate ourselves’.

There aren’t going to be many players at Liverpool that have more self-belief than arguably the two club’s best players – Van Dijk and Salah.

Many have questioned what has happened to Van Dijk this season, because the previously ice-cool Liverpool defender looks like the shadow of a player that would put fear into the opposition’s eyes.

And Salah, who penned a new long-term contract in the summer, is finding that Liverpool fans are also questioning why his performances have dropped from the back end of the last campaign.

Nonetheless, a theory was put to Ashton that, after Salah signed a new contract, Van Dijk would have been thinking ‘what about me’ after what he has also given to the Merseyside giants.

“I would have thought that,” said Ashton. “If I was a player, at any side, and I felt that my own worth, then another player was given a contract (like Salah’s), then, of course, it would bother you.

“Footballers are absolute ego-maniacs footballers. That’s how we have made it. That’s the reason we have made it out of the millions of people who want to be footballers. We have made it because we completely rate ourselves. Unbelievable self-belief. Think we are the best.”

SALAH AND VAN DIJK ARE KEY TO LIVERPOOL’S TURNAROUND

Jurgen Klopp is searching for positive form and his players reacting to their recent worrying defeats, including 4-1 at Napoli in the Champions League last week.

If the Reds are to pick themselves up, then they need two of their key players to re-find their currently vanished form.

Van Dijk started the previous campaign in a slow manner, before picking things up, so perhaps it’s just a case of his best being around the corner.

For the first half of last season, Salah was one of the best players in Europe, before dipping in the wrong direction when he returned from the AFCON’s.

Either way, don’t write off world-class players, especially ones that can be the difference in a team winning major trophies, such as the Premier League title and the European Cup.